Chocolat (novel)

Chocolat is a 1999 novel by Joanne Harris, which was adapted in 2000 as a film of the same name. It also exists as an audiobook, narrated by the author. Set in the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes between Mardi Gras and Easter Sunday, it follows the story of Vianne Rocher, a single mother who arrives with her six-year-old daughter Anouk to open a chocolaterie opposite the church. Their arrival coincides with the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of fasting, and scandalises Francis Reynaud, the priest, and his supporters. Tensions run high, and the community is increasingly divided between the abstinence of the Church and the indulgence of chocolate. The book was a bestseller on publication, going on to sell over 1 million copies in the UK and 35 million copies worldwide. It won the Creative Freedom Award in 1999 and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. The Lollipop Shoes, the second book in the series, was published in the United Kingdom in 2007 (released in 2008 as The Girl with No Shadow in the US) and in 2012, the third in the series was published, entitled Peaches for Monsieur le Curé (Peaches for Father Francis in the US), followed by The Strawberry Thief, in 2019. In 2025, Orion Books published a prequel, Vianne.